Page:The Prairie Flower; Or, Adventures In the Far West.djvu/62

 tile savages

on his trail. I did not attempt the ascent myself.

The following day, before noon, we readied Chimney Rock, another natural curiosity, which can be seen at a distance of thirty mili;s, and which afar off resem bles a shot Lower; but as you near it, it gradually, assumes the appearance of a liaystack, with a pole protruding from the apex. It is about two hundred feet in hight, and is composed of much the same substance as the Solitary Tower. The rains are gradually wearing it away, and in course of time it will cease to be an ob ject of curiosity. Black George informed me that twenty years before, it was at least a hundred and fifty or two hundred feet above its present elevation.

Pursuing our journey, we encamped in the evening on Scott's Bluffs, where we found a good spring, and plenty of grass for our animals. As wood was abundant here, we started a fire, and while sitting around discussing our meat and smoking our pipes, the old trapper, who had not been loquacious for several days, observed :

"Strangers, heyar's what can't look rouua this spot without feelin badly I'll be dog-gone ef I can!"

"And why so?" I asked.

"Case one o' the almightiest best fellers yotvever seed, went under here. I knowed him like a trump; and he was one o' them chaps you could bear to talk about real mountain grit, with a hand that u'd make your fingers ache when he squeezed 'em, and a fist that could knock a hole into your upper story and let in the atmospheric ef he didn't like ye. Yes, he was one o' the purtiest men that ever raised hair, throwed buiiler, trapped beaver, swallered " bou- dins," or I'm a liar. But all wouldn't do. Death sot his trap and cotched him, and left jest a few floatin sticks in the shape o' bones to let us know he was a goner. He died right down thar, 'bout six paces from whar you're settin."

"Tell us the story."

"It's purty easy told. Him and a heap o' other fellers had bin up on a right smart trade with the Injius, and was comin down this way, going to the States, when a lot o' the cussed varmints jumped on to 'em and stole every blessed thing they had, even to thar guns, powder, meat, and be to

'em. Well, Jimmy Scott him as I's tellin about he hadn't bin well for a week, and gittin aground o' fodder fetched him right over the coals. He kicked mighty hard at first; but tindin it wasn't no use, he gin in, and told them as was with him that his time was up, and he would hev to do the rest o' his trappin in another country, and that they'd best put out while they'd got meat enough on thar bones to make wolves foller 'em. They hated to leave him like darnation but they had to do it; and so they sot him up agin a rock and vamosed. This was about a mile down on tother side thar; and arter they'd gone, Jimmy got up and paddled here, whar he laid down and went a wolfin. Nobody ever seed Jimmy Scott arterwards but they found his floatin sticks here, and gin this the name o' Scott's Bluffs."

The next day, long before sundown, we came in sight of Fort Laramie, where it was the intention of Huntly and mystlf to spend a few days, to refresh ourselves and rest our animals, before attempting the perilous journey of the mountains. On our whole route, from the moment we crossed Kansas river, we had not befn gladdened by the sight of a single white man but ourselves; and consequently my delight may be imagined, when I beht'jd the walls of this celebrated fortress appeu in the distance, and felt that there at leys! I could rest in safety.

Fort Laramie stands upon slightly eJc vated ground, some two miles from thr Platte, and on the west bank of Laramie Fork. It is a dirty and clumsy looking edifice, built of adobes,* after the Mexican style, with walls some two feet in thick ness and fifteen in hight, in which are planted posts to support the roof, the whole being covered with a clay-like substance. Through this wall are two gateways, one at the north and the other at the south, and the top is surmounted by a wooden palisade. Over the main or front entrance is a square tower, built also of adobes; and at two angles, diagonally opposite each other, are large square bastions, so ar ranged as to sweep the four faces of the walls. The center of the fort is an open square, quadrangular in shape, along the


 * Sun-burne